China auto sales fell 92 percent during the first two weeks of this month in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.
It was even worse in the first week, when nationwide sales tumbled 96 percent to a daily average of only 811 units, the China Passenger Car Association (PCA) said in a report released earlier this week.
Deliveries this month might slide by about 70 percent, resulting in a roughly 40 percent drop in the first two months of the year, it said. The figures exclude minivans.
“There was barely anybody at car dealers in the first week of February as most people stayed at home,” PCA secretary-general Cui Dongshu wrote in the report.
Dealers gradually restarted operations in the second week of this month, when daily sales of passenger vehicles stood at 4,098 units, still a decline of 89 percent from a year earlier, he said.
The situation is expected to improve in the third week of this month, Cui said in an interview yesterday.
The numbers underscore the extent by which sales have been affected in the world’s largest auto market.
ADDING TO A TREND
Even before the outbreak, auto sales in the country were heading for an unprecedented third straight annual decline because of a slowing economy and trade tensions.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Thursday said it would work with other government departments on more measures to stabilize auto sales and reduce the impact of the outbreak.
Separately, policymakers in China have been discussing extending subsidies for electric-vehicle purchases beyond this year to revive sales, people familiar with the matter have said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy